A light emitting apparatus is, for example, an LED apparatus, which includes a light emitting element and a light-emitting-element light guide component for guiding light emitted by the light emitting element. In general, the light emitting element is an LED element, and the light-emitting-element light guide component is an LED light guide component. Such an LED apparatus is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2002-32149 (pages 3-4, FIG. 6). The LED apparatus is installed in any of various electronic equipments, and the LED light guide component is disposed so as to guide the light to the window of a housing. The LED light guide component often has a plate-like shape, and such a component is also called “LED light guide plate”.
FIG. 7 shows an example of a prior-art LED apparatus. In the illustrated example, a housing 101 is an operating panel, and it has a window 103 for projecting the light of an LED. The LED element 107 is mounted on a substrate 105.
An LED light guide plate 109 is made of a semitransparent resin, and it has a base portion 111, a window-side protrusion 113 which protrudes from the base portion 111 toward the housing 101, and a substrate-side protrusion 115 which protrudes from the base portion 111 toward the substrate 105. The window-side protrusion 113 and the substrate-side protrusion 115 are in the shape of plates. The base portion 111 is sandwiched in between a keeper plate 117 and the housing 101, whereby the LED light guide plate 109 is held. The window-side protrusion 113 is arranged in the window 103 of the housing 101. The substrate-side protrusion 115 is received in a hole 119 which is provided in the keeper plate 117.
Meanwhile, regarding the housing of the operating panel portion of an electronic equipment, there has recently increased a type which has a curved surface endowed with some curvature, unlike a single flat surface. A configurational example of an LED apparatus in this case is shown in FIG. 8.
Referring to FIG. 8, a housing 121 is a panel which is formed of a curved surface. Besides, windows 123, 125 differ in their heights to a panel front surface. In accordance with the difference of the heights to the panel front surface, therefore, a level difference is provided in the rear surface of the housing 121, and two sorts of LED light guide plates 127 and 129 having different heights are disposed. In the illustrated example, the base portion 133 of the LED light guide plate 129 is thicker than the base portion 131 of the LED light guide plate 127. Accordingly, the LED light guide plate 129 is higher than the LED light guide plate 127.
The above configuration is not restricted to the case where the housing has the curved surface. It is applicable to a case where the height of a housing differs depending upon places. Besides, in the prior art, the shapes of the LED light guide components are made different as stated above, whereby the positional relationship between the end surfaces of the LED light guide plates and the front surface of the housing is held.
The light emitting apparatus in the prior art, however, includes the plurality of sorts of light-emitting-element light guide components as stated above and is liable to rise in cost in correspondence with the more sorts of components. Moreover, since the plurality of components must be managed, the assembling job efficiency of the apparatus has been inferior.